BuzzFeed's New Self-Serve Ad Platform Gives Discounts Based On Virality

The ads, which will run both on BuzzFeed's destination site and
through its ad network, are discounted based on how viral they
are.

How can BuzzFeed know this?

Advertisers promote content that they have already submitted to
BuzzFeed as unpaid content, or that they have run on their own
sites using BuzzFeed's tracker. BuzzFeed provides a dashboard for
monitoring the viral performance of any piece of content in its
network. When someone wants to pay for added exposure with Boost,
BuzzFeed offers its promoted slots up at $5 CPMs, but promises
"bonus impressions" based on that piece of content's viral
performance to date, lowering eCPMs. If the content becomes more
viral after the campaign begins, BuzzFeed automatically boosts
the discount.

"It's like Quality Score for virality," BuzzFeed President Jon
Steinberg tells us. The site is all about promoting viral
content, so this ensures the ad units will be filled with content
that's relevant and appealing to its audience. In the future, Jon
says, BuzzFeed may outright refuse to run content that isn't
sufficiently viral.

The program is in invite-only beta for now, but BI readers can
sign up here,
using the code: 9bczxo